Welcome Ezra Nichole Lohman!

Lots of you want to know the story of Ezra's birth. So here it is!

First of all, I thought there was no way I would go before or even on my Due Date. I figured it was certain I would go after that date (Feb. 20th). Because I was labeled with gestational diabetes, I was suppose to be induced if I did go over my due date.

On the morning of the 16th, I went in for my weekly prenatal checkup. We talked with my midwife (Diane) and we all agreed to put off my induction date to that Friday, the 25th, in hopes that I would go on my own before then. This was also the first appointment when Diane was going to check my cervix to see if I had begun to progress towards labor. She also said she would go ahead and sweep my membranes while she was in there to try and help move things along and make sure I went on my own. She saw that I was 2cm dilated and 80% effaced. Once she swept my membranes she said, "You know, I probably didn't need to do that. You'll definitely go before the 20th." Even though she's the expert, I didn't believe her and figured I'd still not go until half way through the next week. Then I went back to work for the morning (I was working 1/2 days at that point) and home for the afternoon.

I started making supper a little before 7 and right around 7 o'clock I started feeling funny. For you women out there, I felt very much like I was about to start a heavy period. It got intense enough that I went to the bathroom to lay down on the floor like I have done in the past with heavy periods. I had supper on the stove and gave instructions to Joe on how to finish. He finished making supper but I couldn't eat it. The same feeling persisted for me but began to come in waves. They were not the stomach muscle cramps I expected to feel, but it was an intense feeling that I could time when they started and stopped. They were only about 5-6 minutes apart right away. None of this hours of pre-labor stuff. They were immediately 5-6 minutes apart and quickly moved to 3-4 minutes apart.

While I'm feeling these, I am not convinced that they are contractions just because they did not feel as I had expected they would. But they were coming in waves so I had Joe pack our hospital bag since we had not done that yet. I called my clinic and asked what they thought. They said since I had gotten my membranes swept, it could just be uterine irritability and to keep an eye on it and go to the hospital if I thought they were contractions. She said "You'll know when they're contractions." Whatever! I never was convinced they were contractions before I got to the hospital.

At 8:30 I finally became concerned enough that I thought we should go to the hospital to get checked out and if it wasn't labor then at least they could tell me that for sure. We got a few last minute things put into our hospital bag and packed up the car. I felt like we were packing up for a vacation, I had so much stuff! Joe got me to the car then walked over to one of our neighbors to give them our house key in case we needed some one to get into our house while we were at the hospital.

We left for the hospital at around 8:55pm. We drove the 7 miles in about 15 minutes, getting us to the hospital at around 9:10pm. I had 4-5 contractions while in the car. We got up to the Labor and Delivery floor and checked in with the front desk. The woman there gave me a small piece of paper to fill out a few tidbits of information. I'm glad I was pre-registered because I would not have had time to fill out all the original paperwork. But I did have a contraction just while trying to fill out the 5 lines of info needed on that small piece of paper.

The nurse got me back to triage to determine if I was for sure in labor. She got me in the restroom and into a gown then to the bed in triage. There, she tried to have me fill out some more paperwork. I kept signing papers but having contractions every minute or so. The nurse finally put the paperwork aside and got me in the bed. She checked me and said, "You're at a 9! You're having this baby!" She got some more nurses into the room to help her quickly get me ready to go to the labor and delivery room. She got the IV put into my arm and the blood sample taken from that. They tried to get me to finish signing my pre-labor papers but contractions made signing impossible, so after one paper they gave up on those. They did not get any of the bracelets on me that most women get put on them during the first parts of being in the hospital. I asked if I could lay on my side to try and slow this process down. They let me, and it did seem to help, but my body started bearing down during the contractions! It was all I could do to make sure I didn't push the baby out in the

triage room.

We had three or four nurses surrounding me worried my midwife wasn't going to make it in time and that one of them were going to have to deliver this baby. They went running around looking for a wheelchair. They had a hard time finding one and I heard them say that they would wheel the triage bed into the L&D room if they needed to. They finally found a wheelchair. Helped me into it and jogged me down to the room. Joe was at my side this entire time. I remember him holding my hand and running alongside the wheelchair. They got me into the delivery bed and let me lay on my side again as Diane was still not there. While my body was bearing down and I was breathing through the contractions to try and slow things down, my water burst. I did not hear this but Joe later told me that he heard one nurse turn to the other and say, "yeah, I can see the head!" So the baby was already crowning and Diane still wasn't there!

Just a bit later Diane finally came running through the door and said "Miss Brittney, what are you doing here?!" She wasn't expecting me to be there that soon any more than I was. They rolled me onto my back, Joe came to my side and held my hand and Diane started letting me push. After what was probably only 10 or so minutes of pushing, Diane had Joe walk to her end and catch our daughter as her lower half slipped out into this world, then she handed Joe a pair of scissors and he cut the cord. After wiping her off and setting her on a warmed blanket, they set her on my chest and I was able to meet Ezra Nichole, face to face for the first time! It was 9:42pm!

She was perfect! She still is. We are greatly enjoying being parents to this amazing little creation of God's!

And I am praising Him that I took after my mother and grandmother with having quick deliveries! You can't beat a total of 3 hours of labor and only 30 minutes of it in the hospital!